Soc-cer?

Alma and I went to the Fire game on Saturday. As someone who is on record as saying that he "just can't get into the MLS," I have to say it was a pretty good time, in spite of the rain, the fact that the Fire lost, and the difficulty in locating the car in what seemed like more of an impromptu parking lot. I probably haven't given the MLS enough of a shot, though it's kind of hard to do so when it's basically as easy to see English Premiership games on TV as it is the MLS (it's not like the Fire are on WGN every weekend, for example). For something that's still a pretty niche sport, it draws a solid audience - more than 17,000 were at Toyota Park on Saturday - and I was pleasantly surprised by how into the game most people were (and how boisterous and vocal those in the Firehouse section were - it's not exactly the Kop end, but it's a start). On the other hand, it wasn't even a sellout in spite of the fact that the defending champions (Houston) were in town, and there was a sizable Latino contingent in the crowd that might not have been as strong if not for the presence of Mexican legend Cuauhtemoc Blanco. I liked that there were several names I recognized from the US team - Justin Mapp and Chris Rolfe for Chicago, Brian Ching and Ricardo Clark for Houston - although both Mapp and Rolfe ended up being substituted off and only Clark figured in a goal.

I got us pretty good seats, so we had a nice view of the field, although the Fire scored their only goal at the other end from where we were and proceeded to have pretty much no really good scoring chances in the second half when they were attacking the goal closest to us. But I dare you to sit that close to the field at pretty much any sporting event and not be engrossed. And of course I love soccer - I might call it my #2 overall sport behind baseball, though I'm sure most of you will think that's crazy talk. The difference, of course, is that it's so much harder to be a soccer fan in this country. I can't avoid football if I want to, for example (and during the offseason, I usually do), but you won't even get MLS updates on ESPN 1000's SportsCenter when the Fire have played. I had the 2005 Champions League final result spoiled for me because I was listening to ESPN 1000 in the car, not thinking they would ever bother reporting a soccer result. To this day I think that's the only one they've ever broadcast (aside from something involving David Beckham, perhaps), which makes me think it was just done to fuck with people who were at work and had TiVoed the game, as I had.

Anyway, I suspect we'll make another game sometime this summer (it would be neat to see them face the Galaxy in September, although I think those tickets might actually already be sold out, which should tell you something about how we prioritize things in this country as regards soccer). I'd like to be able to get into the Fire (even though I can't really pull off wearing red), especially with Manchester City on the verge of driving me away thanks to the aggressively manipulative ownership of George Thainbrenner (aka Thaksin Shinawatra), although making Europe will hopefully settle things; it's hard if the only way I can do it is to keep going to Fire games, though. I'm not made of money. We'll see.